When all is said and done
by Failisse
Summary: When Yuna and Paine leave the GullWings, what does that mean for Rikku? She's still searching for the thing that she's lost, and along the way she'll uncover the truth of her feelings and learn more about the person she's become. The road she's taken will be a difficult one, but will she find it worth it in the end? A small multi-chapter ficlet, done in short drabbles.
1. Chapter 1: Faded Dreams

**Chapter 1:**

**Faded Dreams**

Rikku lay on her back on the deck of the airship looking up at the sky above her. Filaments of white clouds streaked with blue firmament passed by in a hazy blur, like some hard to recall remnant of a dream.

And perhaps that description was fitting because for the past six years her hope, which was once a shinning great beacon, seemed to be fading away like the wisps of the clouds above her. It was as though she had been dreaming for so long only to have awoken and forgot what it was all about.

The first time it happened was about a year after Tidus returned. Both Paine and Yuna had quit the Gullwings, each having found the things they were searching for, and now it was just her, Brother, Buddy, and Shinra. Still sphere hunters. Still searching for things they had lost.

For Brother and Buddy it was a way of making a name for themselves. To reap the benefits and the rewards and to become famous for being the best sphere hunters in all of Spira. For Shinra, it was simply to continue inventing new and amazing things.

For Rikku…for Rikku it was more personal. It felt like something inside had gone missing. The vivacity she once held for life. The hope that had once burned bright in her and inspired others. It all had gotten lost somewhere, and she traveled in hopes of getting it back.

She needed to find herself. Discover who she was again and relearn exactly what it meant to be Rikku. Had she changed? Of course. Had she become stronger in both ability and character? Most definitely. Had time and experience taught her resolve but made her harder and more cynical? Perhaps.

But that was neither here nor there. While living on Spira might have made her grow up faster, it was not the cause of the desolation she found inside herself. No. That honor belonged solely to the man who had stolen her heart. But he was no longer there for her to yell at.

He hadn't been for six long years.

* * *

I own nothing. Final Fantasy X and X-2 and all it's characters belong to Square Enix and it's developers. This is the only time I will state that.


	2. Chapter 2: My Immortal

**Chapter 2:**

**My Immortal**

_Off in the distance a flap of red, fading like the Sanubian sun. Voices calling. Shouts heard from far away. The cry of a gull on the sea air. Flickering lights fading…fading. Ripping apart. Tearing. Floating away. Never looking back. Shouts. Someone is screaming. Crying. Look back. Turn back! A whisper on the wind, soft and melancholy. Don't go….please…._

"Don't leave me!"

Rikku shot up in bed, heaving gasps of air into her oxygen deprived body. Her lungs worked overtime as she tried to quell the shaking. Thick rivulets poured like lakes from her eyes, obscuring her vision. She watched as the fat droplets fell to the floor, creating patterns on the dusty ground.

Visions of red plagued her even now. No matter how many days or months had passed. No matter how many years, she was still haunted by the ghost of a man who had long since left her behind.

"Tysh. Tysh res. Fru tuac ra drehg ra ec?" She muttered, wiping furiously at her soaked eyelids.

Jumping off of her bed, Rikku quickly shed her clothes, throwing them into a messy pile on the floor before striding in to the bathroom. She hopped into the shower and immediately turned the knob up to its highest setting.

The pipe gurgled and sputtered before water blasted out from above and soaked her in heat. The water was scalding, and as she scrubbed her skin, it began to look raw. She didn't care. She just wanted to wash away the dream she had. The sticky resin of memory that still clung to her like a second skin even after all these years.

She was tired of crying. Tired of curling up alone in bed after a really bad nightmare and telling herself that it was just a dream.

Except, that it wasn't. And she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out how to let go of the memory. His memory. And it was tormenting her, tearing down her walls until there was nothing left but the soft, raw core of her sorrow. She no longer held onto hope as an escape. She was above believing in such painful and useless things. To hope was to hurt. And she no longer wanted it.

The only problem was, it still wanted her.

* * *

Another chapter update. Please R&R and let me know how I'm doing. Depending on how well this fic is received I _may_ consider doing another short story for this pairing _or _doing a Sailor Moon Crossover with this game fandom. I'm not sure yet.


	3. Chapter 3: Dimmer

Chapter 3:

Dimmer

She was here again. Visiting this…place. If one could call it that.

It felt to her as though it existed outside of time. Outside of the world she knew as Spira. It was endless, and vast, and completely and utterly…unchanged. It was the Farplane.

She visited here around this time every year for the past eight years since the day the world had changed.

The day that everything changed.

The day the world became to blossom and she began to wither.

A world without Sin. A world without Vegnagun.

A world without, Faythe. Yu Yevon, and Aeons.

A world without Shuyin, Lenne, and Unsent.

A world without dreams.

And above all else. A world without HIM.

A world without Auron.

And that's why, to her, the world was a bit dimmer.

* * *

Yes, I know. This is all a bit depressing, but I promise you it DOES have a happy ending.


	4. Chapter 4: Follow On

**Chapter 4:**

**Follow On**

**_When all is said and done, you are the only one_**

Ugh. _What the hell happened, _she thought?

_My head feels like it's been run over by a Shoopuf on haste. _She tried to recall where she was and what had gone down, but her head pulsed furiously and she kept drawing a blank.

"Vilg. E's kaddehk du umt vun drec." she said and then jumped slightly as a deep chuckle came from her right.

"Fru'c drana?" she demanded shrilly at the unknown voice, but winced as her temples began to throb.

There was a grunt, "Mea cdemm. Tuh'd suja. Oui'ja dygah y rynt vymm."

She tensed, expecting an attack. Suddenly there were cool hands along her temples, rubbing up and down in soothing repetitive motions.

_That's nice_ she thought sleepily, before slapping herself mentally and jerking away. Forcing her eyes open, Rikku involuntarily squinted them because of the glaring brightness of the place she was in. Blinking a few times, her eyes leaked tears before her vision cleared up. Slowly shapes began to form in her line of sight. The first thing she noticed was the color red. There was a lot of it.

Her eyes followed it up, taking note of the form it clung to and how the figure had allowed enough space between them to seem unaggressive. His coat (which was the source of the red), billowed on an unseen wind, and was tailored with strips of blue fabric. A black belt was worn along his waist with a sake jug tied to his hip.

Her swirly green Al Bhed eyes continued to take him in, as she followed the course of his length up to the top, where a slight smirk peaked over the edge of a white cowl. Next his eyes came into focus. Those dark, intelligent, deep brown eyes that had the ability to both intimidate and inspire, and had once, so long ago, stolen her breath away when he demanded that she look at him. Her breath now seemed to be missing from her lungs as she stared in awe and longing at the figure before her. For it could no one else.

"Auron" she breathed.

His smirk widened behind the cowl.

"Auron" she whispered again, and this time two tears tracked their way down the sides of her cheeks. She shuddered, breathed deeply and closed her eyes again.

"Ed'c y tnays. Fyga ib. Ed'c zicd y tnays," she spoke harshly to herself.

"Rikku," the figure commanded softly, "Open your eyes."

She mumbled to herself before shaking her head. "No, because this is a dream. It has to be. You're dead".

A sigh. "Rikku, open your eyes," commanded the figure a bit more firmly.

Taking deep breaths, Rikku slid one eyelid back and stared defiantly at the apparition before her.

He seemed to wait patiently for a moment, staring into her eyes, before coming to a decision. Calmly, he reached down and grabbed her chin with his hand, directing it upwards and tilting it slightly. Silently, he covered her mouth with his own.

At first, Rikku sat stiffly, refusing to be drawn into the illusion, but as he began to probe her lips with the tip of his tongue she gasped, allowing him to steal away into cavern of her mouth. Groaning, Rikku surrendered herself over to the – seemingly very real – phantom of a man who had long ago won her respect.

And her heart.

They sat there exchanging kisses, her hands trailing up and down the sides of his face, pulling tightly at the back of his head, and nicking paths with her nails across the breadth of his shoulders. Touching everywhere, feeling him there, beside her. Trying desperately to hold on to this as reality, and hoping beyond hope that this was not a dream. Not something she would have to wake up from.

Gradually, the kisses became less harsh and unforgiving; more gentle. And finally, they tapered off into short pecks. This time, Rikku opened her eyes without prompting. Her gaze boring into his, tracing the hard lines of his face, and the sharp angles of his cheekbones, and finally the scar that ran over his left eye.

"Is this real?" she asked. "Am I allowed to hope?"

He smiled at her, a soft, small, rare smile that she had only seen perhaps a total of two times in her life. "You may hope," he said. "If this is what you want."

She smiled right back, a broad, grin blooming along the sides of her mouth, spreading delicately over her features, and lighting up her face, taking years of desolation and heartache with it.

"Yes," she said at last, "This is exactly what I want."

And leaning over to kiss him again, she let him know exactly how much she wanted this.

* * *

The title is named after a song I really love by a celtic band called Danu. Go to youtube and listen to them. They're great!

By the way, for those of you who don't know the Al Bhed language, go to this website. It will translate for you. Make this page into the mobile version first so you can copy. Also, remember to take out the spaces in the url and the damn parentheses which I had to put in because this website is getting harder to trick. And don't forget to turn some of those words into keyboard symbols.

(ht tp)(Colon forward slash forward slash)(stefangagne).com(Forward slash)(albhed).(ht ml)


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